Bumble Bee Seafoods responded Tuesday to President Donald Trump’s fishy claim that protesters chucked cans of tuna at law enforcement officers during civil unrest prompted by the deaths of Black Americans in encounters with police.
“They go out and buy tuna fish and soup. You know that, right? … Because they throw it, they throw it, it’s the perfect weight — tuna fish,” Trump said at a rally in Pittsburgh. “They can really rip it, right? And that hits you. No, it’s true. Bumble Bee brand tuna.”
There have been no media reports of police being hit with cans of tuna. Bumble Bee Seafoods responded to the claim Tuesday on Twitter.
“Eat em. Don’t throw em,” the company said on its official Twitter account.
In 2018, the company said Trump’s tariffs on Chinese tuna would be “devastating” for the business.
Nationwide protests have followed the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Trump has used his re-election rallies to spread falsehoods about the protests and boast about his law-and-order message and his pledge to quell the unrest in cities.
He claimed at Tuesday’s rally and others that mostly Democratic cities have been overrun by “anarchists.” Although police have violently clashed with demonstrators, many of the protests have remained largely peaceful.
On Monday, the Justice Department released a list of cities that it has deemed “anarchist jurisdictions” under Trump’s instructions this month to review federal funding for local governments in places where violence or vandalism has occurred during protests.
